William Max McGee (July 16, 1932 – October 20, 2007) was an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was an

end End, END, Ending, or ENDS may refer to: End Mathematics *End (category theory) * End (topology) * End (graph theory) * End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) * End (endomorphism) Sports and games *End (gridiron football) *End, a division ...

and punter for the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) from 1954 to 1967. He is best known for his seven receptions for 138 yards and two

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

s, scoring the now historical initial touchdown, in the first Super Bowl.

Early life

McGee played

high school football High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...

White Oak, Texas White Oak is a city in Gregg County, Texas, Gregg County, Texas, United States. It was incorporated in 1960. The population was 6,225 as of 2020 United States census, 2020. History In the later parts of the 1800s, White Oak was a small farmin ...

, and was the very first player in American high school football history ever to rush for over 3,000 yards in a single season. He rushed for 3,048 his senior year as a White Oak Roughneck player in 1949. McGee played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

Tulane University The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, where he was a fullback and a top punter. At the time, Tulane was a member of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

Professional career

McGee was selected in the

fifth round Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth Avenue * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a cont ...

(51st overall) of the 1954 NFL draft by the Green Bay Packers. He was the punter during the first few years of his career. In his rookie season in

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

, McGee led the NFL in punting yards while catching 36 passes for 614 yards and nine

s. He missed the next two seasons (

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

and

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

) while serving as a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

in the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

, then returned to become the Packers' leading receiver from

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

. McGee was one of the few bright spots on the

team, which finished the season with a league-low 1–10–1 record, the worst in Packers history. During 1958, he led the NFL in yards per catch average (23.2), punting yards (2,716), and net yards average (36.0). After

Vince Lombardi Vincent Thomas Lombardi ( ; June 11, 1913 – September 3, 1970) was an American professional football coach and executive in the National Football League (NFL). Lombardi is considered by many to be among the greatest coaches and leaders in Ame ...

took over as head coach in January

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

, McGee may be best known for his performance during the first Super Bowl game. He helped the team to six NFL championship appearances, five NFL championship wins, and two

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

titles during the remaining years of his career. He was a

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (since 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's All-star, star players. The format has changed ...

selection during the season. Despite reductions in playing time due to injuries and age, McGee's final two seasons were the ones for which his career is best remembered. In the 1966 season, McGee caught only four passes for 91 yards and a touchdown as the Packers recorded a 12–2 record and advanced to

Super Bowl I The first AFL–NFL World Championship Game (known retroactively as Super BowlI and referred to in contemporaneous reports, including the game's radio broadcast, as the Super Bowl) was an American football game played on January 15, 1967, at th ...

against the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...

. McGee did not expect to play in the game, and he violated his team's curfew policy and spent the night before the Super Bowl out on the town (with his teammate and best friend

Paul Hornung Paul Vernon Hornung (December 23, 1935 – November 13, 2020), nicknamed "the Golden Boy", was an American professional football halfback and kicker who played for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 to 1966 ...

). The next morning, he told starting receiver Boyd Dowler, "I hope you don't get hurt. I'm not in very good shape," alluding to his hangover (however, Dave Hanner, an assistant coach with the team at the time, stated in 2002 that McGee did not in fact get out of his bed the night before the Super Bowl, as anybody trying to be out past curfew would've been fined and kicked off the team). Dowler went down with a separated shoulder on the Packers' second drive of the game, and McGee, who had to borrow a teammate's helmet because he had not brought his own out of the locker room, was put into the game. A few plays later, McGee made a one-handed reception of a pass from

Bart Starr Bryan Bartlett Starr (January 9, 1934 – May 26, 2019) was an American professional football quarterback and head coach for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Alabama Crimson T ...

, took off past Chiefs defender

Fred Williamson Frederick Robert Williamson (born March 5, 1938), nicknamed "the Hammer", is an American actor, filmmaker, and former American football player, a defensive back who played mainly in the American Football League (AFL) during the 1960s. He was a ...

, and ran 37 yards to score the first touchdown in Super Bowl history. This was a repeat of his performance in the NFL championship game two weeks earlier, when he had also caught a touchdown pass after relieving an injured Dowler. By the end of the game, McGee had recorded seven receptions for 138 yards and two touchdowns, in a 35–10 Packers' victory. The following year, he recorded a 35-yard reception in the third quarter of

Super Bowl II The second AFL–NFL World Championship Game (known retroactively as Super Bowl II) was an American football game played on January 14, 1968, at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. The National Football League (NFL)'s defending champion Green Ba ...

that set up a touchdown in the Packers' 33–14 win over the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...

. McGee retired shortly after the game and finished his 12-season career with 345 receptions for 6,346 yards and 12 carries for 121 yards. He scored 51 touchdowns (50 receiving and one fumble recovery). On special teams, he punted 256 times for 10,647 yards, an average of 41.6 yards per punt, and returned four kickoffs for 69 yards.

Career as a celebrity restaurateur

McGee entered into a restaurant partnership with Packers left guard

Fuzzy Thurston Frederick Charles "Fuzzy" Thurston (December 29, 1933 – December 14, 2014) was an American professional football player who was an offensive guard for the Baltimore Colts and Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He played ...

; they operated the Left Guard Charcoal Houses in Appleton, Fond du Lac, Madison, Green Bay, and

Eau Claire Eau Claire (French for "clear water", ''pl.'' ''eaux claires'') is the name of a number of locations and features in North America. The name is pronounced as if it were spelled "O'Clare". Place names (Canada) Communities *Eau Claire, Calgary, a n ...

. They also operated the Left Guard Steak Houses in Menasha,

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

, and Minneapolis–St. Paul, and the Left End Steak House in Manitowoc. In addition, McGee co-founded the Mexican restaurant chain

Chi-Chi's Chi-Chi's is a Belgian Chain store, restaurant chain and a Mexican-styled grocery items owned by MegaMex Foods. The son of one of the original co-founders recently revived the brand by preparing to open two restaurants in Minnesota. The name ...

Life after the NFL

After retiring from football, McGee became a major partner in developing the popular Chi-Chi's chain of Mexican restaurants with restaurateur Marno McDermott. McGee was inducted into the

Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame The Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame is a team-specific hall of fame honoring players, coaches, executives and other contributors to the history and success of the Green Bay Packers, an American football team in the National Football League (NFL). ...

in 1975. His ties to the Packers continued from 1979 to 1998 when he served as the

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The person may also be referred to as a summariser (outside North America) ...

for radio broadcasts of Packers' football games. With droll wit and keen insights, McGee was extremely popular as a color commentator. McGee founded the Max McGee National Research Center for Juvenile Diabetes in 1999 at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and raised a great deal of money for

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

research.

Cancer

McGee was diagnosed with

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...

at age 56 in April 1989, but it was caught early and he recovered after surgery.

Death

In 2007, at the age of 75, McGee died after a fall off the roof of his home in

Minnetonka Beach, Minnesota Minnetonka Beach is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. Located on Lake Minnetonka, the population was 539 at the 2010 census. History Minnetonka Beach (Officially The Village of Minnetonka Beach) is located on the shores of ...

, a suburb west of

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. His wife said he had been suffering from an early form of

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

for the previous five years.

NFL career statistics

Regular season

References

External links

*
Sports Illustrated
' – cover – January 23, 1967
Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame
– Max McGee * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McGee, Max 1932 births 2007 deaths Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in Minnesota American football wide receivers Green Bay Packers announcers Green Bay Packers players NFL announcers Players of American football from Hennepin County, Minnesota People from Overton, Texas Players of American football from Texas Tulane Green Wave football players United States Air Force officers Western Conference Pro Bowl players Military personnel from Texas Military personnel from Minnesota Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame